CAFFARINI, TOMMASO. - Dominican, properly Tommaso di Antonio (Thomas Antonii) of Siena. Laurent, who restored his surname to him, commonly calls him "C."
Born in Siena around 1350, died in Venice in 1434. He entered the Order of Preachers young at St. Dominic's in Camporegio. From as early as 1364 he was in personal and epistolary contact with St. Catherine. A lecturer in theology at Genoa in 1391, after a journey to the Holy Land he settled in Venice (Nov. 1394); he was provincial of the province of Greece (1397), prior of Sts. John and Paul in Venice (1409-11) and of St. Dominic of Castello (1414-22).
In the history of the secular Third Order of St. Dominic and of the cult of Catherine he had quite special merits. Bl. Raymond of Capua entrusted him in 1396 with the direction of the Mantellate in Venice. In 1401 Fr. Tommaso da Fermo made him vicar general for all the Mantellate of Italy and charged him with the negotiations for the canonization of the woman of Siena and for the approval of the Rule of Muñoz da Zamora. He composed a Trattato sul Terz'ordine domenicano, of which the 1st part was finished in 1402, the 2nd in 1407, and the 3rd, which is a collection of letters of indulgence, seems to have remained incomplete after 12 Aug. 1407.
In imitation of their confreres in other cities, the Sons and Daughters of St. Dominic in Venice adopted the custom of commemorating with a certain solemnity the anniversary of the death of Catherine of Siena. In 1411, following a discussion on this custom that arose between devotees and opponents of the woman of Siena, a deputation of Dominicans asked the bishop of Castello to open an inquiry whose purpose would be to show the virtues attributed to Catherine of Siena. C. at first held the threads of the affair concerning the virtues of Catherine known as the Processo Castellano. It was presented to the episcopal Curia of Castello and contains 23 depositions (Dominicans, members of other religious orders, laypeople), with 2 supplements and 1 letter of Cardinal Giovanni Dominici, gathered between 1411 and 1416. The importance of the inquiry and of the information is great. Laurent has brought out the history and the historical and juridical value of these depositions at Castello.
He worked a great deal on two other manuscripts on Catherine, that is, shortly before and up to 1411 on the Supplementum to the legends of Catherine by Capua (Proc. Cast., LXI-LXVII), finishing it in 1416-18 in the form in which it has come down to us (ibid., LXI), while in 1412-13 he committed to writing the first account of the Legenda minor, which received a second redaction in 1413-1414 (ibid., XIX-LXI). C. also collected letters of Catherine.
Bibliography3 works
Angelo Walz